Left sided ocular/headache

[lc309703]

Female, 40, no major medical hx., no daily meds. For the past several years I have experienced occasional Severe headaches. Typically I have no warning, I will be awakened w/ severe, piercing pain centered in my left eye, I describe this as feeling like an ice pick penetrating my eye and exiting at the left base of my skull, my left eye will water and my nose will run/feel stuffy on the left side. The pain is excruciating causing me to "pant". When these start they will come/go for approx. 3 days then go away for about a month, then come on again. I take "Excedrin" ibprofen to tx. but doesn't seem to help much...would like some advice, what is this and what can I do to treat?

[Dr Santos]

Hi,
How are you? A cluster headache is one-sided head pain that may involve tearing of the eyes and a stuffy nose and may occur repeatedly every day at the same time for several weeks and usually go away. The pain may occur in and around one eye and pain may last 30 minutes to 2 hours. It can occur daily for months and alternating with periods without headaches. It is also possible to have a mixed type of headache.Treatment does not cure cluster headaches but to relieve symptoms.  Avoidance of triggers and prescription medications may provide relief. Biofeedback therapy may also help. If it persists, have this evaluated further for proper management. Take care and best regards.

[dame_wilbur]

sounds like you might be having ice pick headaches. I get them a lot. I would recommend using one of the trackers here, specifically headache/migraine tracker to see if your spikes have anything to do w/ your hormones. It's not necessarily the answer, but it's something to rule out.

Ice packs, or putting pressure on the spot can help me sometimes relieve a little bit of the pain. But mostly I just have to deal with it til it's over.

Good luck!